A Political Test

While I follow politics fairly closely and believe that the choices made do make an impact, many do not. So, to verify this theory I have conducted a test.

Within the Halifax Regional Municipality, my house is within District 22. My Councillor is Reg Rankin. He is from Mabou, Cape Breton, so I assume he is probably related to the other Rankin’s from that area. But do not be distracted, this is a serious political test.

Tonight I sent Mr. Rankin an email covering 2 municipal issues which are relevent to me. They are not the most urgent or the most important, but I think they are good ones to test.

First, I noted that the tree in front of my house (on city property) is dead. I requested it be removed and replaced with a live one. Yes, this may seem a bit trivial to you, but it looks silly and my neighbor, Ray, makes fun of me for it.

Second, I requested information on how to petition for a crosswalk to be added at the bottom of Sheppards Run. This is less trivial because it is a dangerous place to cross the street. Ok, not for me. I am an adult and I do not take the bus. But for kids and those who get dropped off by the bus at rush hour it is. I would like to see a crosswalk added.

So the test is out there. I wish my Councillor, Mr. Rankin, good luck. I will report back to you on the speed and helpfulness of his response.

Deep Water - Two Degrees

When we launched Deep Water Church last November I thought that most of the new people who came to the church would come because of an invite from someone in the church.  The way I figured it was that mass advertising would be of little use; for the people we were looking to reach out to to show up for a service or an event they would need to know that they knew someone and were wanted.  We crafted all of our promo materials to act as first person communication tools, for people to give out to people in their one degree.  That is, people they knew from work, school, sports, social circles, etc.

While this has been the case in some instances, what is more common is for new people to come through a second hand referral.  People who are part of Deep Water telling someone who is not a part of the church about what we are doing and that person suggesting someone in their one degree to pay us a visit.  In other words, we are growing through two degree word of mouth.

I should have anticipated this.  In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell suggests that the most effective people at “spreading the word” are people who are good at spreading the word, not necessarily the people who are directly involved.

I would be remiss if I also did not mention that more of the referrals actually join us as we pray and as we consistently reinforce the need to be sharing and reaching out to people around us.

It will be an interesting challenge to keep pushing both one degree and two degree word of mouth growth for Deep Water.  We believe that God wants to change Halifax and wants us to be a part of it.

So, for all reading this… tell people in your one degree about Deep Water and keep the two degree word of mouth working!

Top Gun Sequel

Rumour has it that there may be a Top Gun sequel.  Tom Cruise would be the flight instructor who has to deal with a cocky female pilot/student.

Everybody mocks me for liking Top Gun.  I concede that some of the lines in the movie were kind of cheezy “Son, your ego’s writing cheques your body can’t cash”, but it was/is a great movie.  The flight scenes in that were great.  And mock it if you like, but it’s 22 years old and everybody still knows the movie and knows the characters.

I am in favour of trying a sequel.  You heard it here first.

 

As a side note, I laughed a bit when the Asian bad guy in The Dark Knight’s name was Lau.